In his magnificent stables were three hundred horses of choice breeds,
while the daily gathering of distinguished men in his halls was not
surpassed by the assemblies of the emperor himself.
Yet in his demeanor there was nothing to show that he entertained a
shadow of his former ambition. He affected the utmost ease and
tranquillity of manner, and seemed as if fully content with his present
state, and as if he cared no longer who fought the wars of the world.
But inwardly his ambition had in no sense declined. He beheld the
progress of the Swedish conqueror with secret joy, and when he saw Tilly
overthrown at Leipsic, and the fruits of twelve years of war wrested
from the emperor at a single blow, his heart throbbed high with hope.
His hour of revenge upon the emperor had come. Ferdinand must humiliate
himself and come for aid to his dismissed general, for there was not
another man in the kingdom capable of saving it from the triumphant foe.
He was right. The emperor's deputies came. He was requested, begged, to
head again the imperial armies.
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